Living Room - Where we Shop

Thank you to all of our readers that have sent in questions wondering…WHERE DO YOU SHOP? This is a series of posts listing many of the purchases broken up by room. We started with the master bedroom and bathroom and now we’re moving on to the living room.

At the bottom of the post are images of some of the items you see in the pictures. Just click on the image to learn more about each product. We hope our design ideas inspire your purchases. Happy Shopping!

Similar products are listed if products are no longer available. See disclaimer for information about affiliate links.

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With no formal and informal living space, we wanted this room to feel inviting and relaxed, but, in a tailored way. All of the upholstered pieces are from Rowe Furniture and feature custom fabrics in neutral colors with subtle textures. The ottoman has a black and white hounds tooth pattern. The side table is from Wayfair and came unfinished so that we could stain it to match the kitchen island. A cute Art Deco style drink table in gold serves its purpose without taking up too much space.

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The paint color we used on the walls throughout the main areas is called First Star. It’s light and bright, but still has some contrast with the white trim. The trim color is called High Reflective White. The barn doors are painted Black Magic. All paint colors are by Sherwin Williams.

The wood flooring throughout the first floor is 3/4” thick solid red oak by Lauzon and it’s provided by H&R Carpets & Flooring. This post has a video that describes the wonderful air filtering benefits to this smart floor. Almost two years later, we couldn’t be happier with this choice!

 

#38 The 7 Principles of Interior Design

Sharing the 7 Principles of Interior Design

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#33 Tech to simplify our day

Automated Faucets

1. We automated the faucets with this motion or touch technology from Delta Faucets. It keeps the countertops clean from dripping hands and it keeps faucets clean from dirty fingers. Oh, and it makes the necessary yet mundane things like washing hands go faster. It even has an LED light that indicates the water temperature. We have these faucets in the main bathroom, the master bathroom, and in the kitchen.

Automated Blinds

2. We automated the blinds with PowerView and SoftTouch technology from Hunter Douglas. With a quick tap on the wand or a click on the remote, the blind moves in place while you walk away. Once again, a twice-daily task is faster making our day more efficient and our outlook (literally) sunnier.

Automated Garbage Bin

3. We automated the garbage cabinet with servo drive technology from Blum. With a gentle push on the handle or the door, the garbage pops out at me. Our first thought was to keep the cabinet in good shape but having the ability to open this cabinet hands free is awesome (like when I just cracked an egg)! It’s another small way to make daily tasks more efficient.

Automated Lighting

4. We automated the lighting with motion sensors. More often than not, my hands are full when I'm entering certain rooms like the mud room or the laundry room. A motion sensor removes the burden of stumbling through a dark room or having to drop everything to flip a switch. Every time I enter the laundry room with a full basket of clothes in my hand, I’m so grateful for that sensor. Also, coming in from the garage with my arms loaded with my work gear and the mail, I’m so grateful for that sensor. We used the Lutron brand in our home which also has some great additional features that allows us to control some of the dimmers with an app on our phone.

All of these features cost a bit more but daily life is so much more efficient! Keep in mind that many of the features involved some planning and a lot of help from our electrician. We can still both recall our frozen feet and hands when doing the electrical walk through very early on in the building process. Thinking through these details, however, has proven to be so WORTH IT!

#20 Exterior Details

We're getting down to adding the final details to the exterior. One of the many decisions we need to make yet involves the flower boxes planned for under the windows. Should the color be black or brown?

My designer instincts are leaning me towards repeating the brown from the garage doors in order to create balance. We are considering black as well because of the continuity it would have with the shutters. The brown can be brought in with a fence or landscape. We had some images made of the options to confirm.

A view of the final selections

A view of the final selections

And the winner is...

After looking things over, we decided to stick with the brown. We really like how the brown adds warmth to the white and black. It also adds a touch of rustic which we like very much. we can't wait to see that pink wall by the front door turn to stone in the next week or two.

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Are you following us on Instagram?

If you're on Instagram, make sure you follow along on our journey! We're making some serious progress on the house and posting lots of new photos!

#19 Recessed Lighting

Recessed cans that aren’t recessed? Confusing statement? Yes, it is!

One of our goals in the basement was to have as unobstructed of a ceiling line as possible. Giving us the full range of our walls. It worked out extremely well because the heat runs and returns could all fit between the joist space with no extra soffit needed. Whew!

Angie meticulously mapped out the perfect location for all of lighting downstairs, careful to space out each can appropriately to give optimal coverage for their glowing magnificence.  We planned for 8 in the living room spaced out symmetrically, 6 in the playroom, 4 in the workout room. It was going to be perfect.

And then… the electrical walk through. Almost everything upstairs went according to plan and then we walked to the basement. Our faithful electrician dashed our dreams and resurrected them all at once. “You know that you can’t use cans in basically any of the spots that you want to put lights because of the HVAC, right?  However, you can use these newer fixtures that are available.” Do tell.

After some explanation from the electrician, we were able to find these little beauties.

  • They can go anywhere a fixture goes!

  • They only hang down ¾” off the ceiling and gave us the ability to put our “not recessed” cans wherever we wanted to!

  • Let their LED light shine!

We even bought enough of them to use in the storage area in the unfinished part of the basement because we liked them so much.

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We ended up using this product for the “true” recessed can lights upstairs.

  • They fit into the can itself

  • Remain flush at the surface with a trim kit to cover the opening

However, the other style also has a retrofit kit included so you can use it in your existing can lights.

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We love the way they look and we're looking forward to the longevity of these fixtures. Let them shine for 35 years plus!